November 25, 2009 Update:
At today's Kankakee County Executive Committee meeting, County Board Chairman Bossert appointed a committee made up of county board members, a private citizen and representatives from local institutions for the purpose of moving forward on a public access station for local programming on the cable system. (Something subscribers have been paying for and not getting because county government has been using the money for other things)
Mr. Bossert also discussed his position on destroying written and audio records of county meetings and the Freedom of Information Act.
November 19, 2009
Today's Kankakee County Development & Operations Committee Meeting agenda and video can be viewed by clicking the link below.
November 19, 2009 Kankakee County Development & Operations Committee Meeting
Things of note: As a result of a suggestion by County Board member Ann Bernard to look into ways to save money on energy use by the county, the county has won a grant to develop a master plan on becoming more energy efficient. Long term savings could be considerable.
Also discussed was the County moving forward on allowing a Public Access channel on the local Comcast Cable system. Cable subscribers have for years been paying for such a channel but the money has been going into the County's General Fund instead of what the fee was intended for. This channel could be used for local programming such as local sports, government meetings, school plays, local theater groups, hunting and fishing in Kankakee County, boating on the Kankakee River, military veteran activities, etc.
Comcast, by law, must provide a channel and collect the fee which they have been doing but the County has never moved forwarded to allow this to happen. Most residents in the County are on Comcast. Those who are on a different cable system are also paying fees so local programming could also be run on their system.
Call your county board member and ask them why you have been paying the fee for a public access channel all these years and they have failed to allow it to happen? Without a push from the public they are likely to not get anything done on this issue and your money will continue to be spent elsewhere. Click here for their phone numbers http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/boardmembers.html
Calling them is more effective then e-mailing them.
Note: Channel 19 on Comcast is a Public Access station for the south suburbs and they have local programming on our system. Wouldn't it make more sense to allow a local Public Access channel since we are already paying for it? Duh!